If I could swap the hours I played skate games in my life with actually practicing real skating, I could potentially give Tony Hawk a run for his money… Skate City by Built By Snowman is the next virtual iteration of skating I gave a lengthy test run.
2.5D skate adventure
Skate City was originally made for the mobile market back in 2019. 2 years into the lifespan of the game, Snowman decided to port the game to all consoles. Upscaling a 2.5D mobile game to bigger formats can lose its charm once it hits bigger screens. Luckily, Skate City’s “vibe” stayed intact. The game might look a lot like the OlliOlli series but Skate City does a great job of distinguishing itself with having a totally different feel. OlliOlli’s gameplay is fast-paced and action-packed while Skate City is more true to real skating. The pace in Skate city is much slower and generally, the game is much more about style and flow.
Challenges vs. Endless skate
Skate City in Endless mode lets you roam free in a city of choice and focus on making lines. There is no time limit and everything you do is just purely for the fun of it. There are objectives to complete in endless skate but just tricking around the level will gradually fulfill those objectives in an almost natural way. Completing objectives earns you points that can be spent to upgrade your skater’s look and abilities. If you’re looking for challenges, Skate City got you covered. Each city offers a multitude of short challenges to really rack up the points. Each challenge has 3 levels of completion. The highest level earns you the most points, These challenges only take about half a minute up to a minute and are a great way of expanding your trick knowledge.
Improve your skater
Skate City is all about street skating. Tricks are performed in a dual-stick manner. Flicking the left stick lets you perform the ollie-based tricks including kickflip, shove-it, and hardflip. The right stick lets you perform a whole different set of tricks based around the nollie or switch stand. Manuals and grinds are also included and linking flip tricks together with them, is a great way of making an awesome line. Big air tricks are not the focus of the game but can be performed at certain spots in the levels. Most of these bigger tricks aren’t available from the start and have to be earned by amassing points.
Oslo, Los Angeles, and Barcelona
Skate City takes place in 3 different cities. At the start, you only get to play in Los Angeles. The two other cities have to be unlocked by spending your points earned. The points you need to unlock these are fairly low so unlocking these won’t be a problem at all. The cities offer different takes on the same principle. Each level has stairs, rails, and ledges to trick on. The cities aren’t all that different and only feature a handful of specific spots. Skate City uses a slick minimalistic style to represent their levels which means the distinction between the 3 cities is more or less faded. The changing weather and the time of day have such a big impact on the look of the level it overshadows the differences between the cities.
All about flow
Skate City is about the experience of skating in a carefree environment. Nothing gets in your way and everything is laid out to be useful in a skate line. The trip-hop/lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack further emphasizes the vibe Skate City is going for. Skate for the fun of skating without worrying about challenges or crashing into other people. Playing Skate City is all about the flow and creating your own lines. You probably won’t play Skate City for hours but playing the game in small chunks made it a worthwhile experience.
Conclusion
Skate City is a chill way of experiencing the skating lifestyle. Try out new lines without the hassle of having to compete with anyone. For anyone who wants a microdose of skate lifestyle from time to time, Skate City is just ideal for you.
